GODORT BUSINESS MEETING
Diane Garner, Presiding
Smittie Bolner, Recording
1996 Midwinter Meeting
January 22, 1996; 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Conference Center, Fiesta E
San Antonio, TX

Diane Garner, Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. She announced that three candidates for ALA President would be addressing the membership: Ching-Chih Chen, Barbara Ford, and Charles Beard. The first two addressed the group before the star t of business; Beard had a prior commitment and made his presentation at the end of the meeting at 3:50.

Following the presentations of Chen and Ford, Garner introduced the executive officers: Judy Horn, Treasurer; Smittie Bolner, Secretary; and Andrea Sevetson, Assistant Chair/Chair Elect. Edward Swanson served as Parliamentarian.

Members were reminded that copies of the agenda, resolutions, committee reports, and the announcement of the GODORT Hotel for the Annual Conference in New York were available at the back of the room. Information about the hotel, the Edison, will appear in DttP, but members might not want to wait that long before making reservations and should pick up the handout.

Sevetson requested that anyone interested in committee appointments should speak, write, or send e-mail to her as soon as possible. She said that there were about 30 or 40 slots open, which she hopes to have filled by Annual Conference. The September issue of DttP has a list of all the positions. It also has Sevetson's e-mail address if anyone wishes to contact her by e-mail.

The minutes of the Business Meeting of the Annual Conference which appeared in DttP, 23 (no. 3):136-181, were approved.

The Agenda was approved following a friendly amendment to insert the Treasurer's report after the report of the Legislative Committee. Garner explained that the Legislation Committee Action items were being pushed ahead in order to expedite the action it ems to the ALA Committee on Legislation which was meeting simultaneously with the GODORT Business meeting. Gary Cornwell, Chair of the Legislation Committee, would present the items to the ALA Legislation Committee as soon as they were approved by the GO DORT membership. Garner reminded the membership that while there could be discussion on the items, there would be no changes and that they would be voting in principle to accept or not accept the resolutions which would go forward as they were written.

Action Items Gary Cornwell, Chair of Legislation Committee, presented action items for the Committee. Cornwell moved that GODORT endorse in principle the following resolution: Resolved, that the American Library Association support the working document, "Model for a 'New Universe' of Federal Information Access and Dissemination."

In the discussion Lynn Walshak pointed out that the "New Universe" document separates the office of the Superintendent of Documents from the Government Printing Office and that it does not specifically include the Government Printing Office in the Council that it recommends creating. It also omits any reference to legislative oversight and authority. Those things are removed from the Framework document as approved by GODORT and are not part of this document.

There being no further discussion, the motion carried.

Cornwell moved that GODORT endorse in principle the following resolution: Resolved, That the American Library Association urge Congress to fully fund the GPO Superintendent of Documents appropriations request for FY 1997.

There being no discussion the motion carried.

Cornwell moved that GODORT endorse in principle the following resolution:

Resolved, That the American Library Association urge Congress to continue efforts to move the FDLP toward a more electronic information and dissemination program by adopting a realistic 5-7 year time-frame for the transition,
and be it further Resolved, That the American Library Association urge Congress to reaffirm the Government's responsibility to provide Federal information in a format most appropriate to the public needs by:

* supporting and funding the FDLP throughout the transition period at a level necessary to carry out a successful transition, and

* dissemination of information in media appropriate to the information's content, use and audience, and

* strengthening the government's responsibility and ability to archive and preserve government information for long-term access;
and be it further Resolved, That ALA urge Congress to hold public hearings by both authorizing and appropriating committees prior to implementing the Transition Plan and to enact the necessary statutory changes to USC Title 44 in order to implement the Plan.

There being no discussion, the motion carried.

Cornwell expressed appreciation to GODORT members for their help on the above resolution.

Cornwell moved that GODORT endorse the following resolution:

Resolved, That ALA commend the Congress of the United States, the Public Printer of the United States, the Superintendent of Documents, and the Government Printing Office staff for providing the public direct online access to GPO Access services at no charge;
and be it further Resolved, That ALA urge Congress to provide continued funding necessary to support direct no-fee public access to GPO Access services.

There being no discussion, the motion carried.

Cornwell moved that GODORT endorse the following resolution:

Resolved, That the American Library Association cooperate with other library associations to seek outside funding for an independent study to be conducted in a timely fashion and by a contractor hired by the associations, that would:

1) examine the technological capabilities of the public, depository and other libraries, the Government Printing Office, and Federal Agencies, and

2) investigate the current technological infrastructure and its ability to support the transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program, and

3) collect and analyze cost data on the transition to a nearly all electronic FDLP, and

4) determine a feasible time-frame for the transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program.

There being no discussion, the motion carried.

Cornwell announced that the last resolution had come from Larry Romans and had to do with adding round table representation to the ALA Council.

Resolved, That the ALA Bylaws, Article IV, Section 2, be amended by adding a new subsection (d) that reads: (d) Each round table that has 250 or more personal members shall be entitled to one councillor to be elected for a term of four years by the members of the round table. One councillor shall be elected for a term of four years to represent all round table s that have fewer than 250 personal members and shall be elected by the members of those round tables.

The discussion centered on whether this resolution had any chance of passing (given the fact that ALA Council has not been supportive of round tables in the past) and on the possibility of further action should it fail in Council. Romans said that the matter could not be brought up until the 1996 Annual Conference since there were no membership meetings at Midwinter. He warned that this, too, might be a problem since the quorum for membership meetings had been increased and there are not usually enough members present at membership meetings to constitute a quorum. He said that the resolution would, in fact, be brought up before the membership at the annual conference and urged GODORT members to go to the membership meetings. He added that the resolut ion had received a favorable response in both the Council Caucus and the Chapter Council Caucus. He said that other alternatives had been suggested such as permitting only round tables with 500 or more members to have representation. Another possibil ity is that there would be a half dozen or so councilors who would represent all round tables. Romans suggested that this last was not an acceptable solution for GODORT since it has interests that are unique. Rather, he urged GODORT members to continue to push for round table representation on ALA Council.

There being no further discussion, the motion carried.

Treasurers Report
Judy Horn distributed the Treasurer's report. She prefaced her remarks by saying that there was no action required of the membership and the report was purely informational. Total income for the 1994-95 FY was $39,331, expenditures totaled $37,856, giv ing a net $2,135. At the beginning of FY 1995-96 there was a balance of approximately $50,000. The performance reports from ALA for the first two months of the current FY show income of $3,145 and expenditures of $452. Horn estimates that to-date reven ues are approximately $4,000 and expenditures, $11,000. The 1996-97 budget was approved by the membership at the business meting in Chicago, and although the Steering Committee can move funds around, it cannot change the bottom line figures. The last re port in the budget packet shows the 1997-98 proposed budget. The Steering Committee can make changes to this budget at its second meeting. The budget will then go before the membership for approval at the business meeting at the Annual Conference in New York.

Task Force and Committee Reports

Federal Documents Task Force
Anne Watts reported that she had a three page summary of the bullet items from the Work Groups on the response to the Transition Plan. She indicated that it had not been vetted by the Work Group leaders and was still in draft stage. She said that the in itial report from the Work Groups was too long to distribute and that she wanted to give Work Group leaders an opportunity to look at it again and perhaps refine it further. She indicated that once this is done the full report would be sent to GPO. Gar ner emphasized that there is very little time to prepare this report and that both GPO and ALA needed to have a quick response on this. She commended all those persons who had worked on the draft of the response and the resolutions.

International Documents Task Force
Erminio D'Onofrio reported that there was no additional report.

State and Local Documents Task Force
Melissa Lamont reported that there was no additional report.

Awards Committee
Susan Tulis said that the meetings of the Awards Committee are closed, but their report will appear in DttP later on this spring.

Budget Committee
Judy Horn reported that the Treasure's report constituted the report.

By-laws Committee
Dan Barkley reported that there was no additional report.

Cataloging Committee
Dena Hutto reported that there was no additional report.

Education Committee
Arlene Weible reported that there was no additional report.

Government Information Technology Committee (GITCO)
John Shuler reported that there was no additional report.

Membership Committee
Sandra da Conturbia reported that the Membership Committee had not yet selected a place for the reception for the Annual Conference in New York. She requested that if anyone had ideas or suggestions to get them to her as soon as possible.

Nominating Committee
Tom Andersen announced there were a few positions on the Awards Committee and the Nominating Committee which have not been filled. He asked that anyone interested contact him or another Committee member before the 2nd Steering Committee meeting.

Program Committee
Andrea Sevetson reported that there was no additional report.

Publications Committee
Tim Byrne reported that the December issue of DttP had announced a vacancy for the position of editor of DttP effective January 1997. Applications should be submitted to Byrne by May 15, 1996. The Committee is also starting the process for the 7th editi on of the Directory of Government Documents Collections and Librarians and will be taking a recommendation for editor to 2nd Steering Committee.

Ad Hoc Committee on the Follow-up to the Chicago Conference Linda Kopecky reported that the Committee has not completed its final report. Kopecky said that the Committee was supposed to have expired at this meeting, but the report recommends that it continue in existence until the end of the 1996 Annual Conferenc e in order to complete its report for publication in DttP.

Ad Hoc Committee on GODORT Organization Sandy Peterson reported that GODORT had received a letter from Leslie Burger, the President of the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), requesting whether GODORT (along with two other round tables) would be interested in m erging as a section of ASCLA, which is a coalition of several groups, state libraries being one of them. Burger will attend the meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Tuesday to have a brief informal discussion of the issues and respond to questions from Com mittee members. Garner said that she has asked the Committee on GODORT Organizations to come to the membership with a recommendation.

Ad Hoc Committee on the Internet Maggie Parhamovich Farrell announced that the Committee had gone out of existence, and that its White Paper would probably be published in the March issue of DttP.

Statistical Measurement Committee Nancy Kolenbrander confirmed that the Committee was expiring with this meeting. She said that the Committee had come out with two products: a one sheet list of conversion factors for measurement of documents for space purposes and for converting documen ts to volumes and a six page bibliography which will appear in DttP in either March or June.

Reports from Liaisons

Cindy Etkin said that at the Chicago meeting the Steering Committee had recommended that GODORT have liaisons to the ACRL Statistical Committee and the ALA/IPEDS Advisory Committee. The IPEDS Advisory Committee had completed its membership but Etkin was invited to attend the meeting as a guest. She reported that 1996 IPEDS forms will be distributed in July and there are changes in those forms. Changes in the forms for the 1998 survey will be discussed at Annual Conference in New York. Anyone interested in statistical measurement of documents or seeing how documents are reported on the forms should get input to Etkin before the New York meeting. ACRL is doing a survey of electronic services in academic libraries which is to be sent out soon. It is to be completed by August for presentation at the LITA/LAMA meeting in Pittsburgh in October. ARL is also preparing a manual to be used for user surveys and will present a workshop in New York on the topic. Garner said that she had not received a response on her request for an ACRL liaison.

Susan Tulis, the liaison for COPAFS, said that there would be a report in the March issue of DttP. She called attention to a publication entitled Electronic Dissemination of Statistical Data, Statistical Policy Working Paper no. 24, which will be availab le in the Depository Library Program on microfiche and on the Internet at http://www.bts.gov.

Aimee Quinn, reporting for the GODORT/MAGERT/RBMS Joint Committee on Rare and Endangered Government Documents announced three items that she planned to take to 2nd Steering: a proposal to make the Committee a standing commmittee; a proposal to co-sponsor, with MAGERT, a Pre-Conference workshop in New York on the digitization of maps and preservation of digitized materials; and a proposal from MAGERT to establish a joint committee on GIS.

Old Business

Garner, reporting on the ALA self-study, announced that Larry Romans and Anne Snoeyenbos had been elected by the Round Table Coordinating Committee to represent round tables on the ALA Reorganization Committee. Sevetson reported that she had attended the meeting of the Round Table Coordinating Committee on Friday (January 19) and that the Committee would meet in March and again in July at Annual Conference. The Round Table Coordinating Committee plans to set up a reflector with round table chairs and vi ce-chairs so that there can be communication between the Committee and the Round Table officers. Sandy Peterson will also be on the reflector which Sevetson is setting up.

New Business

Aimee Quinn announced that she has gathered the 25 signatures necessary to change the By-laws to make the Rare and Endangered Government Publications a standing committee. The rationale was that the Committee had been charged with surveying depository lib raries for valuable and rare documents and to hold workshops on the preservation of old documents. However, it was unable to do so because it was not a standing committee. The By-Laws Committee Chair planned to bring up the motion at the 2nd Steering Co mmittee meeting. In answer to a question, Quinn responded that the Committee would be concerned with state and local as well as with Federal and international documents.

Committee and Task Force Action Items

Awards Committee, Budget Committee, By-laws Committee, Publications Committee, International Documents Task Force, and State and Local Documents Task Force had no action items.

GITCO
Barbara Levergood read several initiatives that GITCO would like to undertake. Garner indicated that no action was necessary at this meeting and that these would be brought before 2nd Steering for a vote. (The text of the initiatives appears in the minu tes of the 2nd Steering Committee.)

Federal Documents Task Force

Anne Watts moved that:
1. the chair of GODORT send a letter to the Government Printing Office expressing our appreciation for involving the library community in the Study and Transition discussions with copies to JCP; 2. the chair of GODORT send a letter to the Government Printing Office expressing our appreciation for keeping GPO Access available during the recent Federal government furloughs; 3. the Chair of GODORT send a letter to the Government Printing Office requesting that the Library directors' meetings be held at Annual and Midwinter ALA Conferences; 4. that the Chair of GODORT send a letter to the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee expressing our appreciation for giving attention to government information in the Library Bill of Rights Interpretation on Access to Information, Service, and Networks.

There being no discussion, the motion carried.

Anne Watts moved that the Chair of GODORT solicit letters from the ALA President to the Secretary of Commerce and OMB expressing our concern that government information gathered at taxpayer expense is being printed, distributed, and sold by private publis hers (e.g., Big Emerging Markets and Leading Economic Indicators)

The motion was seconded. There being no discussion, the motion carried.

Nominating Committee
Tom Andersen introduced a proposal he intended to bring before the Steering Committee to change the way in which members of the Nominating Committee are elected from one year terms to staggered two-year terms in order to have continuity from one year to the next.

Transition Plan Response Discussion
Garner called on Anne Watts to facilitate a discussion of the executive summary of the bullet items drafted in response to the GPO Transition Plan. Garner said that this, plus the longer 20 page list of bullet items, would be the basis for a more polished summary which is to be drafted by the facilitators of the Work Groups, the GODORT Steering Committee, and anyone else who wants to work on it. The response would be further polished by the ALA Washington Office. Garner took each section individually:

Preservation: Bernadine Hoduski suggested that the word "electronic" be inserted before the word "information" in item one, and that the word "data" be used instead of the word "sites" in item four.
Bibliographic Control: Dena Hutto said that in item two it was not the intent of the Committee to recommend the retention of SuDocs numbers as they currently exist. Rather, the intent was to recommend establishing a standard number to replace the SuDocs number. Hutto recommended that item three include a statement that the URL should be kept current or should be maintained. Linda Kennedy expressed concern that the bullets did not reflect the sense of the response. She said a brief introduction presen ting the gist of the topic would help to clarify the intention.
Legislation : no discussion
Public Service: no discussion
Organization: Bernadine Hoduski said that the statements were vague and needed to say something more substantial about the roles of the libraries and the community in the reorganization process. John Shuler countered that the shifting of power among the partners was contained in that one statement. He said that Depository libraries need to redefine their roles in light of changes in GPO's role. Hoduski insisted that the statement needs to be fleshed out if the document is to be understood by its readers. Watts said that the document was a pragmatic approach as to how librarians will work within the new program. Jill Vassilaskos-Long expressed satisfaction with Shuler's explanation.
Standards: no discussion
Training and User Education: no discussion

Watts asked for a sense of the Membership on continuing to work on the response. She reminded everyone that even though this response would go forward, it is not a dead issue. Hoduski reiterated that she would like to make sure that people who receive t he response are aware that it is a work in progress. Garner offered assurances that her statement would make clear to GPO that this is not a comprehensive statement, but an expression of concerns, together with a statement of principles on which we have reached consensus.

Clair Beck pointed out that, in addition to the document which we have been looking at, there is the process in Washington about which people are confused, such as the Strategic Plan, the budget hearings, etc. Garner said that the point was well taken an d she would take measures to keep the membership informed.

Andrea Sevetson announced that Gary Cornwell had returned from the ALA Legislation Committee and reported that the Committee had passed all of the GODORT resolutions except the one asking that the American Library Association seek funding for a study of d epository libraries and the transition of government information to electronic format. This action did not require a resolution as ALA was already proceeding with the request.

Sevetson also announced that GPO appropriation hearings were scheduled for February 21st.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00.